Addiction Recovery Services

“We admitted we were powerless —that our lives had become unmanageable.”

Once addiction takes the powerful hold it has over someone’s life, it can seem almost impossible to overcome. For those of us who have experienced it first hand, whether it be yourself or a loved one, we are all too familiar with the feeling of powerlessness and despair. While some people who have overcome their addiction by themselves through sheer willpower and self discipline, most addicts simply can’t do it alone. Many have tried time and time again to quit their addiction and almost always end with the same results. Failure.

There is a reason AA states “We admitted we were powerless —that our lives had become unmanageable.” as the first of the twelve steps. Admitting powerlessness means you have accepted you have a problem, but it can also mean a realization that you are powerless to do anything about it by yourself. The addict who has come to the realization that they have a problem may incorrectly assume they can overcome their addiction without the aid of others. After failures to quit and or repeated relapses, an addict may still believe they do not need to enter a treatment program. They do…

“Are you tired yet?”. Billy Hoffman, a professional peer consoler for Williamsville Wellness, asks this question for addicts who are in denial of needing any treatment. “Have you figured out yet that everything you’ve tried to do, on your own, has not worked? In fact, things have progressively gotten worse.” he says in the video above. There are greater benefits to participting in group therapy, professional counseling and meetings compared to not taking advantage of these resources.

It’s wonderful if an addict can overcome addiction on their own, but those who have tried and failed need to ask themselves “Am I tired yet?..”

by Andrea Shipley, MA “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom” –Anais Nin
I’ve heard some debate about whether it was actually Nin who said this, but regardless of who, the message is profound. We all reach those periods in our lives when we have outgrown old ways of being, thinking, and living. We experience moments when we are met with the choice of continuing on in our outgrown and tattered lifestyles, or risking the unknown by stepping out into something new.

Many of us are met with many gentle nudges as life suggests it may be time to move on. But let’s face it, most of us are too stubborn for subtle messages. We tend to wait for the overt ones like exhaustion, sickness, or rock-bottom losses. Maybe it doesn’t matter so much what finally wakes us up to the need for change; what matters is that we get there.

Residential Alcohol Treatment Centers Virginia. What Will It take For You to Grow?

From there, it’s a matter of mindful, creative, and self-compassionate movements; trials and errors, as we learn to stretch beyond preconceived limitations and into the next phases of growth. Moments like this can, understandably, feel humbling and scary. This is why reaching out for help from people who can support and guide this kind of natural growth is so important.
If you’re feeling squeezed by life, consider that it may be time for you to blossom.

Williamsville Wellness focuses on a total health picture, which includes working out and diet. We’ve found a lot of people have trouble meeting the recommended 30 min of actual cardio a day.

This is different from a 30 min workout designed to get the heart rate up, and you can only really figure out if you’re doing it with a heart-rate tracker of some kind. One thing you can do to make it easier is a diet tweak – although I personally don’t need anymore fiber. 😉

During her 14 years of marriage, Laura A., who declined to provide her last name, became an everyday drinker. Her husband, George A., was a binge drinker who drank on weekends and holidays.

George had a job in advertising that paid well. They had two kids, belonged to two country clubs, took trips and remodeled their house.

One New Year’s Eve night, the couple was preparing to go out when her son accidentally broke a dish. Laura began to scream and rant uncontrollably at her son.

“It just triggered me, right there in front of the babysitter,” she says. “I screamed so much I hurt my throat, and it was just an accident.”

The most recent Gallup poll states that drinking has caused trouble in 30 percent of families. Addiction, without treatment and recovery, can and will literally tear families apart and destroy strongly bonded friendships, according to the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence.

Mark Willenbring, a former Director of the Treatment and Recovery Research Division of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism/National Institutes of Health weighs in on Hazelden’s embrace of Suboxone

So, Hazelden’s new approach is a seismic shift that is likely to move the entire industry in this direction. I told Marv that it was like the Vatican opening a family planning clinic! However, although this is a major positive step, they continue to be wedded to a strictly 12-Step approach along with the medication. But, I don’t see this ever changing. Hazelden has always seemed to operate like a Catholic hospital: science was okay as long as it didn’t conflict with ideology, and when it did, ideology won out.

His post betrays the trope that 12 steppers control the treatment world.

So, what are the beliefs driving his celebration of buprenorphine maintenance? In another post he offers what he believes should be the informed consent statement offered to opioid addicts entering treatment. [emphasis mine]

“The only treatment proven effective for treating established opioid addiction is maintenance on a medication such as Suboxone or methadone, often with adjunctive counseling. Studies show that maintenance treatment reduces illness, mortality and crime, and is highly cost-effective. Therefore, it is the first-line treatment and the treatment of choice. There is no evidence of effectiveness for abstinence-based treatment.”

Wow. “The only treatment proven effective“? “There is no evidence“?

Mark Willenbring is a doctor. What kind of treatment would he receive if he became an opioid addict? Would he get Suboxone maintenance?

Drug Rehab Centers in Richmond VA and the Debate of Whether to Use Suboxone as a Maintenance Drug

A new drug coming out of Europe is showing some promise in the fight against alcoholism. It’s called Selincro and was approved by European regulators last week.

The drug is being recommended for males who drink 60 grams of pure alcohol per day (about 1.5 bottles of wine) and for females who drink 40 grams. The drug is somewhat controversial, but the drug blocks an opioid receptor in the brain that doesn’t allow the alcohol to produce its normal effect. However, the drug maker, Lundbeck, says the drug is to be used in combination with counseling and a gradual reduction in the amount of alcohol consumed.

Tests have proven that the drug does make a significant impact on the drinking habits of those in the trial. One person cut back the daily intake from 75 grams to 14 grams per day following treatment for one year. Side effects include nausea and sleeping problems, but the severity of each reduced as the test went on.

Alcohol is the best selling, most popular drug in America with about three-quarters of the population imbibing and spending close to $200 million per day. There are an estimated 12 million alcoholics in the United States., many of whom had their first drink before age 15. People who drink get into a lot of trouble. Nearly 75 of child abuse cases and all felonies are occurring when the perpetrator is drunk. More than 80 percent of wife batteries and homicides involve drinking. Any time someone is stabbed, there is a 72 chance that booze was involved.

While there are 12 million people suffering from alcoholism, about four times that many people are affected by the drinking those alcoholics do and the actions they take while intoxicated. Therapies can often be assisted with medication, and Selincro will be watched closely as European doctors monitor the drug’s results.